Abstract
Microalgae are widely used for wastewater treatment. Microalgae offer several advantages over other microbial culture used in wastewater treatment. Some of these advantages are (i) low-cost cultivation at large scale without external supply of nutrient and carbon, (ii) ability to sequester CO2 from waste gases, and (iii) production of biochemical-rich biomass which can be used for biofuel production or as animal feed. Further, research reports revealed that algal-bacterial co-culture has number of advantages over pure algal cultures in wastewater treatment. Microalgae and bacteria in wastewater systems usually have synergistic relation, resulting in improved remediation and enhanced biomass production. However, these interactions are affected by several operational conditions such as nutrient profile, pH, and temperature. Indeed, the algal-bacterial synergies are situation based and may change significantly even with a slight change in the operational conditions. In the recent years, in-depth research and development has been carried to overcome the process limitations particularly for wastewater treatment using algal-bacterial co-cultures. Moreover, attempts have also been made for coupling the algal-bacterial treatment process with bioenergy production. The present chapter shall systematically cover the various aspects related to utilization of algal-bacterial interaction in wastewater remediation from laboratory-scale to pilot-scale studies.
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Acknowledgment
Funding for this research was provided by (i) Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India, through the research grant received under Early Career Research Award Scheme (Ref. ECR/2015/000065) and (ii) North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station (NDAES). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of SERB and NDAES.
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Bhushan, S., Simsek, H., Krishna, A., Sharma, S., Prajapati, S.K. (2019). Remediation of Domestic Wastewater Using Algal-Bacterial Biotechnology. In: Gupta, S.K., Bux, F. (eds) Application of Microalgae in Wastewater Treatment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13913-1_13
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